The incidence of the cattle disease BSE (bovine spongiform
encephalopathy) in Portugal has continued to increase, the Committee on
the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy learned yesterday18
October.

The number of cases confirmed so far in 1999 is 128.
The figure was 106 for the whole of 1998, rising from 30 (1997), 29 (1996),
14 (1995) and 12 (1994) when the problem first came to light.

The increase was revealed by the European Commission
as the result of a question from the committee chairman Mrs Caroline JACKSON
(EPP/ED, UK). The Commission representative also disclosed that Commission
inspection missions had noted some shortcomings in measures adopted in
Portugal for the eradication of BSE. In particular, up to now the removal
and handling of specified risk materials had not been adequately implemented
in all cases.

Mrs JACKSON was also alarmed that unusable Portuguese
meat- and-bone meal intended for incineration at a specialist plant in
Belgium could not be sent there because the plant in question had its hands
full dealing with Belgium's dioxin-in-food crisis.

However, the Commission also pointed out that the Portuguese
authorities had taken a wide range of national measures to cut effectively
the circulation, through national food and feed chains, of the agent thought
responsible for the BSE upswing. In response to other questions, the Commission
said that Portugal was currently implementing properly the cooking pressure
standards applicable to rendered animal waste.

Last November the EU adopted an embargo on the export
of Portuguese cattle and beef - apart from fighting bulls - so as to prevent
the entry of contaminated beef into the human food chain outside Portugal.
The embargo is in force until next February. However, the Commission representative
warned that the ban might be prolonged beyond that date should there be
an unfavourable development in the incidence of BSE or continuing shortcomings
in the implementation of risk management measures.

So far, the committee learned, 46 people in the Union
- 45 at the epicentre of the crisis in the UK and one in France - have
died from a variant of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease) thought to be linked
to eating BSE-infected meat.